With Lego Legends of Chima Online, players journey across the world exploring jungles, caverns and more. And it doesn’t stop once the computer’s turned off.

With the Cross-Play feature, Chima Online allows gamers to hop off the PC or Mac and resume play on their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. But while Cross-Play delivers a seamless transition from platform to platform, it’s not enough to overcome the game’s numerous shortcomings.

Understanding that the game is targeted at a younger audience and uses a free-to-play system, Chima Online is still clichèd in almost every aspect. The game fails to break away from the routine characteristics of most Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games.

From the start, players are thrust into a world of fetch-quests and button-mashing without really understanding why. All they know is that they’re commanders in an inter-species army of eagles, bears, lions and gorillas that stand unified against the crocodiles.

Perhaps developer WB Games assumes players will come in with prior knowledge of the setting from the TV show on which Chima Online is based. But it’s a bad premise on which to build a game.

After some tutorials that are more boring than helpful, Chima Online presents its full experience. Players establish an outpost where they can gain studs — the Lego games’ main currency — craft weapons and acquire powers.

From there, the game hurls quest after quest at players. It makes the adventures feel like a series of sessions carving through monotonous legions of Lego-formed minions who are little more than an excuse to repeatedly push the right and left click buttons. At least players earn studs in the process. With some exposition, the constant quests might be enjoyable but without it, the characters feel less like commanders and more like grunts given a high rank to make new players feel special.

Two weapons are better than one… and two players are better than one. (Provided By Lego, WB Games)

As bad as the story (or lack thereof) is, the biggest problem here is gameplay. It employs a click-to-move mechanic. Players click a destination and the character moves accordingly. It’s cumbersome at best and requires constant clicking. The HUD is so crowded that it’s easy to click open a menu instead of a desired destination. Players also click on enemies to attack them. Frustration mounts as a missed click results in the character circling an enemy while taking damage.

What’s worse is that many of the game’s collectibles need to be clicked on in order to be added to the character’s inventory. While this isn’t a big deal on the desktop and laptop, it’s a nightmare on an iPhone. It’s understandable that the iPhone needs to utilize the touch-to-move mechanic, but for the game to require players to touch every piece of fruit or every block — instead of simply having the character collect items by walking through them — is nothing short of asinine.

One of the things the game gets right is the fluidity with which it handles multiplayer. Friends can join a player’s world, or outpost, and interact with it as they deem fit. Friends can adventure together or move about on their own. They can even interfere in boss battles, which is helpful when the boss is about to claim victory.

Partying with other players is a fun and flexible. Fell behind your teammates while whipping up a bowl of Ramen Noodles? No problem, rejoin them with the click of a button and get back in the action.

As with many free-to-play games, Chima Online offers memberships that allow players to build larger outposts which lead to more powers, better weapons and more currency to work with. The free version is very limiting, however.

In the free version, players are given enough room for a few buildings in their outpost. The game doesn’t let non-members expand at all. Ever. No matter how much in-game currency the player accrues, only members can expand. This leaves a significant portion of the game outside the “free to play” realm. It would be understable if the game allowed non-members to expand slowly, at 1.5x the price, etc. But never? At that point, there’s not much incentive to play for free. Which is part of the point, but it would still be nice to see more free content.

While Chima Online does its due diligence in placing parental controls throughout the game, including locking the chat until a parent gives the OK, it’s difficult to condone this as a introduction to gaming for young players — or as a title that can sustain their interest. Cross-Play is a fun, neat feature that any gamer could love. But at the end of the day, players have to enjoy the game first.

A&E reporter John Wenzel has covered a variety of topics for The Denver Post over the years, including video games, comedy, music and the fine arts. He's been playing and loving video games since his dad brought home a sweet ColecoVision in 1983. Catch him on PSN as beardsandgum.

Hugh got his start writing for the Cheyenne and Woodmen Edition newspapers in Colorado Springs. In 2011 he moved to Denver where he has written for Denver Urban Spectrum and Colorado Community Media’s Wheat Ridge Transcript. Hugh joined The Denver Post in 2014 as an editorial assistant.

Bryan Moore joined The Denver Post sports department in 1997 and has worked in many phases of producing the daily sports section ever since, specifically focusing on coverage of the Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and college football and basketball.